20th birtdays, Apolo, a Làska

First entry in my 20s! wow now that I wrtie that I can't believe 1. that Im in my 20s and 2. that I have a blogg in my 20s. gross. ha actually while Im sitting here at the kitchen table, drinking instant coffee and eating toast made in a fry pan I like to pretend Im Carrie Bradshaw writig for some important publicaion. Whatever. This post was requested so its not a total waste! (ps. Làska means love... I gave myself a tattoo last night... explaination to come)

so Birthday celebration was a total succuss!Thursday during the day I got lunch with some people in old town square where they had a bunch of food stands out for Carnival. We got this pzzia thing called Lángos. I think its Hungarian. Its basically fried dough that isnt as sweet with ketchup and cheese. its pretty good... definitely different. its interesting how much ketchup they use here but charge you for it in resturants and even McDonalds. That night before we went to our favorite Mexican place Fosil and had a great time! Perfect way to turn 20! Free drinks for the birthday girl!!! Which is the way it totally should be at every place all the time. The waiter...who spoke spanish...in prague... loved us. whats not to love about our Jurisova group of love (or làska). afterwards went back home and hung out a little,breaking brooms and internet chatting. you know,standard stuff. There is this website called chatroulette.... dont go there. Strange people! Anyway...

The next day... aka the real birthday... February 19th... I celebrated like any student would. Slept in! Amazing!especially for me who never gets any sleep!!! Then I made myself my signature breakfast of potatoes eggs peppers onions all mixed togethr in no certain pattern. AMAZING. The day you get to try this creation is the day I become your best friend!! ok exaggeration,but I really like it. I ate breakfast and watched Valentines Day movie...which of course I loved because its a movie about my second favorite holiday on my 3rd favorite holiday!
After that me and my lovely roommate went to the square to go to this little tourist outdoor shop thing and walked around Václavské náměstí for a while and I had my first smažený syr sandwich... which is a staple here in Prague. Basically its fried cheese in a bun with ketchup, mustard and mayo.. or any combination of those. Sounds revolting right? nope. amazing.

I, probably from the influence of my mother, wanted to cook my birthday dinner. I made garlic pasta with veggies and chicken stuffed with spinich and cheese... and it turned out amazing!!! thats right watch out Julia child I just might be the new best chef ever. haha just kidding.
we decided to head to Bed Lounge and see how that place was.It looked really promising... like Duvet in NYC...beds for chairs and a very modern setting. It was a nice atmosphere... kinda small,white beds where you have to take your shoes off, big pillows, music, free chips, funky glasses. Thats about where the charm ended. The drinks were very overpriced and not that great and the staff wasn't so helpful. After 1 drink we decided to leave and try something else. we went to Václavské náměstí and sat down in a couple places but being a tourist area everything was overpriced so we got on the tram and headed back to Praha 4 to find some local Czech places. Ended up at this really cute bar with a great waitress, cheap good drinks and... THE OLYMPICS!!!! Thats right happy birthday Samantha you finally get to watch theolympics in Prague. Best birthday present ever!!! I saw curling and some of the CZ VS.Latvia hockey game! It was great watching that with Czech people and cheering when the Czechs scored! It's interesting watching the olympics in another country because I bet that game wasnt even aired in the USA. and now im cheering for 2 countries instead of just one.
When we got back (after i stole a food sign) just hung out in the tv room for a while. all in all a perfect birthday!

Saturday is the day Jaurisova 6 fell apart. every washing machine was being used and there was no hot water until 9pm. awful. we all basically sat around in pajamas all day.Basically best day of my life. I left once to get a bottle of wine at the corner store. I felt a little bad since the weather was so nice but its like that today too so Ill venture outside today.

I also stayed up to watch Apolo race live last night... and I only made it to the quaterfinals... at 4am.Be happy Americans you are only 3 hours ahead instead of 9. I saw him race though so mission accomplished.

Suns out in praha... gonna go enjoy it!!

Mléko gone wrong and dish hands

For those of you who assume Im on a 4 month vacation- just know that I still have to do things such as dishes... especially after our dishwasher blew up last week. So I'm writing this entry with nasty dry dish hands. However will I find a husband if I have dish hands before my 20s? Plus somehow all our coffee mugs disappeared. Im sure they are located somewhere in the many rooms of this apartment... and hopefully will magically appear in the sink or cupboard soon. COffee mugs are like socks around here.

now that I officially sound like an old maid...This is my last entry as a teenager. Not that I have felt like a teenager for the past 3 years at least. Once you have to buy your own toliet paper and milk, the thought of being in your teens is revolting. Actually the minute you move to NYC basically being anything less than an adult in your 20s doesn't exist unless you are 12 and living with your parents. The point I am trying to make here is I'll be 20 in about 24 hours and that rocks my socks (or coffee mugs... i hope someone understood that). It is said tht by 23 your body begins deteriorating... bring it on. Lucky for me I have my bath and body works lotion! (miss about America: bath and body works foam soap)

Real reason for writing (besides my mother saying i need to update even though nothing really interesting happens in my life) is the disasterous hot chocolate escapade I have been on for the past month. So being that I dont speak fluent czech and I had to buy food... I ended up not purchasing hot chocolate mix but bittersweet coco powder. you can imagine what happened when i tasted that for the first time. so ever since then I have been experimenting to try and make it taste better.... ultimately failing each and every time. So I decided to try something new... as suggested by my lovely friend Lauren via skype... and this seemed brilliant so I had high hopes.
the Mléko here blows. it is really sweet and smells weird. Seriously.. I like to make the comparission to cereal milk. You know... after you eat all the cereal and all the leftover milk is there an it tastes sweet since the cereal melted into it? (ps. I never understood milk in cereal... who came up with that?) anyway... thats what the milk here tastes like. So Lauren suggested using the sweet milk with the bittersweet coco to make hot chocolate. Shes such a smart cookie! So I had high hopes and microwaved the nasty Mléko and added the nasty tasteless powder and took a sip. disgusting. tasted like nothing and some powder. So I added sugar and it tasted an inch better. That is a picture of the cup and the bag of sugar (cukr).

So Im writing this, with my dish hands, sipping nasty milk powder and sugar in the last mug in our kitchen dreaming about bath and body works foam soap. Happy last day of being 19!

on a high note... going to Istanbul march 4th!!!!! Finally a temperature over 25 degrees F!!!!
Evr'y gal in Constantinople
Lives in Istanbul, not Constantinople
So if you've date in Constantinople
She'll be waiting in Istanbul

Thats right... I'll be in Istanbul not Consantinople. Never gets old.

I should mention that My lovely roommate pointed out that everything I write in these entries is spelled wrong. I had to explain that thats what is so charming about my entries. I know I can't spell. Im in nursing school not spelling school. I think it adds character... and the fact that I can't spell or figure out spell check adds to that. I apologize for the spelling. Guess I'll never get this published now!

Haha hopefully this weekend will produce some good stories and interesting things to wirte in my bloggy. I plan on exploring Praha a little... so lets hope its interesting!

"and this is the Starbucks so Americans don't feel left out"-overheard in Staré Město

First weekend since before classes that I spent in Prague. And it was much needed. Didn't do anything really but sleep and catch up on gym time and homework, but it was the best just sitting around watching movies and sleeping and eating. haha now I sound gross. But it was good times.

I just looked down and my foot looks swollen. Could and probably is just in my head. Lets hope that clears up soon.

This is probably the first (and hopefully) last olympics that I will be basically missing. Since Vancover is a lovely 9 hours behind time here in Prague, and I have no idea how the TV thing works... AND no website will live stream to anywhere outside of the USA (thanks for thinking of Americans abroad NBC) I don't know what I'm going to do. There are 3 main sporting events in the year that I need to watch.
1. the superbowl. Missed due to a train ride
2. The olympics. I cant let apolo down.
3. March Maddness. Who knows how I'm going to be able to watch that, it was hard even in NYC
so this is actually a little depressing. I only watch Apolo bring the heat every 4 years and now I have to miss it. BLAHH. Im going to have to ask my professor who only talks about skiing how I can view this magic. Freakin study abroad!
You never really think about this stuff until you are 6 hours ahead and 40000 miles away from american tv broadcasters.

Guess what everyone... My birthday is this friday!!!!!!!!!! finally out of the teenage years and into my 20s. its about time. Ever since I have had t buy groceries and buy my own toliet paper I have decided that being 19 is a joke and unfair. while the difference between 19 and 20 is basically nothing, I feel this is an important milestone and come friday at 1:08pm (or I guess 13:08) Ican start living and making mistakes in my 20s. let the party begin.
haha you know what my favorite part about an upcoming birthday is? seeing it on the birthday list on facebook for the upcoming week. mine should be up soon!!!!! keep a look out for it!
plans for birthday? still up in the air a little but I'm thinking its going to be night in Vienna and night in Bratislava (slovakia), and hopefully some beautiful people currently residing in Florence will be there? (did I already write this last post? it sounds really familier)

plus Im making a list of things in Prague I need to see... and things in Europa I need to see. I might have to stay past may... till like 2012 to see everything.

Valentines day is tomorrow and for those of you who I haven't sent my holiday list to.. this is my second favorite holiday! which everyone finds to be insane since most people hate it, but I think it's great. I do wish there were valentines and valentines candy here. maybe I just really enjoy the commercialization of Valentines day in America. whatever it is... Im excited.

PS. I FREAKIN MISS PANCAKES. Wait till you move to a country without pancakes. Its not that I need them everyday but the option to eat them everyday is nice. First meal back in the states. Garbage plates and pancakes (maybe not at the same time).

So it's 2pm here and I'm going to bond with the American time zone and have breakfast now! haha.
1. if anyone figures out a way for me to watch the olympics.... let me know and I will love you forever and ever.
2. go syracuse! I believe we a number 2 now!
3. Happy Valentines Day!

They were Conessss!-- for you little sister

So its currently 16:33. for those of you who like me still have issues with this its 4:30pm and all the reading I planned on doing between classes aparently doesn't exist which is good and bad. good because obviously who likes reading for class, bad because now I have tons of free time and nothing really to do. I know what you are all thinking... you're in Prague go explore. Well all you thinkers it's cold, and the dimensions I could explore in this time would be everything I already know... so Im gonna update my little blogger.

ps. this keyboard is so cool becasue its a czech keyboard. however I dont know how to work it and it makes it harder to type because there are so many letter on each key... here we go.

Since I just wrote last night and nothing has happened since except dinner at a cute club for the roommates birthday and a shower this morning before class... this is more or less a Samantha's thoughts entry. This is my "journal" of the trip so Im going to try to remember right now all the things I have been thinking about over the past almost month that I have been abroad.

firstly, there are many things that I miss about America. Not deathly miss like send me home now... but a few things that you would normally take for granted until you are say living in the Czech Republic. For example dunkin donuts/ coffee places where when I order I get what I want. I guess the Czech's just really aren't into brewed coffee, so my Prague goal that states I will find a great coffee place... Im removing it.
I miss showers big enough to move in, bathrooms that include toliets and sinks so you dont have to swittch rooms, bagels on every corner, NYC in general, nursing classes (ok thats not something most people take for granted, but I do!), chocolate chips, my hello kitty toaster, ALL MY CLOTHES, SHOES, ok now this is things I miss in general, like sunshine, being able to text my friends, being in the same time zone as 90% of people I know, hulu/american tv, going to the movies in english.

This is actually rediculous. (If thats not spelled right I don't care. I have never been able to spell it.). I get to live in a forigen country for 4 months. Don't get me wrong this is the best experience I could ever get and I am so glad I chose to come over here by myself and figure it all out. Just sometimes some hommade cookies or straight up american food might be a little nice.

Something I don't miss howver- automatic toliets. No toliet is automatic and I love that.
I just realized how much I actually talk abouth bathrooms on this blogg....

This thing is kinda fun sometimes. Makes me want to apply myself and write for like the school paper or something. I wont though. Not now at least. this is break semester for samantha and I plan on doing the bare minimum work... which is actually the opposite of my "real life" so im gonna go all out in the slacking off in school department.

This is most definitely my randomest entry yet. I dont really know what else to tell you.

OH WAIT. MY BIRTHDAY IS IN 10 DAYS!!!!!!!! finally. I feel like I have been waiting soo freakin long for my birthday to come again. A year is a really long time to wait. I think we are going to go to Zurich, and hopefully 2 beautiful people from Florence will be there as well!
note- in CZECH they have name days and when its your name day you get to celebrate. Samantha is not one of those so I told my czech teacher I would just pick another name and celebvrate that. I haven't picked yet... I think I'll pick based on the date...any suggestions?

How am I supposed to end these things? I usually run out of time and have to just post and not worry... but now I dont know. I guess good bye for now?

Piwo, Wino, and Perogies

Definition of Sudy Abroad: never study. Put off homework to write in blogg and put pictures up on facebook and plan your next adventure.

sounds perfect to me, and exactly what Im doing right now. (ps. study abroad isn't on urband dictionary yet... it brings you to slutty abroad, which is not exactly the same thing)

So I'll beging with random trip to Kraków Poland. Another lovely travel experience...traveling on a beat up communist train with no heat, no signs, and seats that detach from the wall... which in this case was not supposed to happen. Luckily after switching cars about 5 times we were each able to get a bench to ourseles to "sleep" while the train barraled across the Czech Republic and Polish country side at an epic 5 Kilometers an hour, stopping every 10minutes or so to check what was sparking below the train. Have I mentioned the heat didn't work.
soooo a mere 7 hours later we made it to Kraków, where it was below zero again and snowing. As usual. I have come to not expect any more than that. However this trip we were able to find our hostel much sooner than we did in Berlin. Mosquito Hostel... name sounds sketchy, at first glimsp it may appear that the door leads to rape central, but ifyou make it to the second floor where the hostel itself is (right above the urologist lab) it is actually really nice and the people are really friendly. This was definitely a legit hostel experience, 12 beds in a room with tons of other travelers, lockers for bags and a communal bathroom. I actually really enjoyed it.

I ate breakfast at polska McDonalds. Not one ofmy finer moments, but we were hungry. Ordering in Poland is hard. I accidently ordered 2 hash browns somehow.... which turned out totally fine!!

That first morning we went to Auschwitz Concentration camp. To be honest it was not what I expected at first. It was very eerie and emotional after hearing everything over the years about the holocoust... seeing it in person is definitely an experience I am lucky to have and something I wish everyone could have as well. most of the buildings and crematoriums still stand, and it really makes you think about everything and how lucky we all have it. We were also able to go to Auschwitz II Birkenau- which was the largerst death camp during that time. It just amazes me that there could be so much hate in a few people that they could just kill innocent people without even thinking it was wrong. Anything I could even write here would not be able to do this justice, and I feel that most people don't take it seriously, when it absolutely should be. I'm gonna leave it at that.

After that We ate the most amazng authentic perogies at this adorable authentic polish place. AHHHHH they were sooo good. I would totally move to Poland just for the food. So good. We then went exploring a little in Stare Miasto (way to copy prague poland!), saw the little outdoor shops, saw someone getting their wedding pictures taken (so cute!) and then went to a little polish pub to warm up. Had authentic Polish hot Piwo (that would be beer. In polish their w are pronounced as V. its actually funny to read the signs!)It was... not my favorite thing ever. They added like cinnamon to it, and a straw. It was an experience thats for sure. Whatever it was only 6,50 PLN.... aka about 2 american dollas. WHAT WHAT! how amazing are these east european currencies???!!! haha. So then we went to another bar to just waste some time since it was way to cold to go outside for long periods of time. We did buy some snacks and hang out at the hostel for a while, watching some Califorincation with a bunch of forgien people, some who were playing monolopy. And got some free mulled wine! Afterwards we went out to this dance club... which was actually tons of fun! people in Europe dance so much differently than in the states, and listen to interesting music, such as backstreet boys at a dance club. I love it!!!

Note- Disco Pogo. song from berlin... top of the charts in Germany. Check it out (Czech it out hahahaha!!!)

So next day we check (czech...last time) out of the hostel and store our bags and head to the miasto for a free walking tour. Anyone who travels anywhere... always check out the free walking tours. they are usually the best and are offered in so many places. So we meet our guide... who was interesting. Very perverted and a psychology student at a local university. He was a great guide though... taught us all about Krakow, which I had no knowledge about at all. Its actually a really beautiful city... even covered in snow. Halfway through the tour we took a little break in a cafe and he told us all these amazing places to eat... and also that he was at the same dance club we were at last night... on the pole....till 5am. no comment. We finished the tour in the jewish quater of Krakow.. which is much smaller now and a little beaten up... but beautiful in its own way.

After the tour we went to another amazing perogi place... where we tried a bunch of different kinds and I TRIED LAMB for the first time... and quite possibly the last time as well. not so great. After we went back to the square and Lisa and I did some shopping for whatever we could find.... since everything was so cheap. I only took out 60 dolla bills for the whole weekend and I just wanted to spend it to not get screwed over by the exchange rate back to CZK. So we found some nice stuff and met up with the boys again for some dessert... which was ok but everything was covered in rasins, which I hate. Then we met up with another NYU girl and had some dinner and drinks and wasted some time in a warm building until train time.

Train ride back.... basically just as bad... but maybe a little warmer. Clarke was able to unscrew the light and take out the lightbulb so we could sleep.... however we were waken to have our tickets checked and then later for passprts and then around 5am because it was the commuter train and we went from 2 people to 7 people in our litte room. very unenjoyable.

Prague is definitely home now... coming back and hearing Příští zastávka on the tram. A wonderful homecoming!!!

PS. I want to bring a clock home from prague. I was trying to think of something that I could have forever and be able to remember my trip... like how old people bring home statues and weird things... well I want a cool czech clock. I think it's a great idea.

I would write more but tonight is Lisa's birthday so we are going out! Im going to try and write a little more from now on... so Ill try to write tomorrow.

missin the NYC

I want to try to write more. It's crazy how time goes by so quickly here, even though in nyc I had a job and harder classes and so much more going on. I do miss nyc a little, it became my home over the past 2 years and its hard being so far away from every home and packing and leaving all the time. But I do love Praha and this is definitely a great place to be and it's starting to feel more like a semi-permanent home for now. I think the hardest part is not being able to call and text people at home. disclaimer this is not me complaining!

ANYWAY- school is ok. Classes are really interesting actually, tons of reading but its a nice break from all the medical terms im used to. My cultures professor is absolutely amazing. He is so funny... well I think he is funny. And just for all of you Americans- Czech is a VERY difficult language. Every word has a million different endings depending on what adjective you use or the context of the sentence. This is going to be very difficult. Luckily I can use this language when I get home.... oh wait they only speak it in the Czech republic. haha.

10 Things I miss from America:
1. brewed coffee
2.Mac and cheese. easy mac would be so nice right now.
3. bigger showers... this wouldn't seem like something to miss but wait till your shower is miniscule
4. being able to communicate with everyone. Who ever said that people in the CZ like to speak englsh was a big fat liar
5. WEGMANS
6. homemade cookies
7. Java city- coffee and a banana chocolate chip muffin
8. Bobst library (haha I really do miss it!)
9. abc.com to watch all my guity pleasure tv shows on. nothing works here, not even hulu. I tried to watch desperate housewives on you tube-major fail
9 1/2. juice in a carton not a box. it makes things so much more difficult.
10. milk. milk here is really gross. its like sweetened. ugh.

The longer I am here the more I realize it will be a lot harder to sdjust to life back in America- note- find toliet with a push button instead of the normal ones.
( while on the subject im adding that I miss normal American toliet paper too).

haha luck has struck my travel plans once again. And by luck I mean the opposite. Apparently my flight is messed up a little so I have to spend the night in new jersey and get back to rochester the next day (the 16th instead of the 15th). boo continental airlines. Like I want to spend my first night back in America alone in a hotel in Jersey. oh well thats 4 months away. Time to enjoy the present.

This entry hasn't really described my days here, but honestly nothing really interesting has happened that is worth mentioning. I would like to tell you that this is just a great vacation, but its reality, Mondays and wednesdays I have calss from noon to 7:20, and tuesdays I have class 3-6 and before then I am usually doing homework that is due that night. Im trying to save money so I usually make dinner and do more homework. Wednesday night we had shit over rice night with some people in my building and cooked some leftovers and rice and had dinner.
haha And last night we went to Mecca- the trashy American club in Prague thats an hour away from our apartments. No comment.

Thursdays are my day off... and so far today I have showered, made lunch and watched the real world. Sometimes it's nice to just sit around and do nothing. I do have some errends to run so at least I'll accomplish something today. A few of us are going to Poland this weekend so I guess I have to get my homework done too.
I hope this blogg is still interesting for all those still reading!

"Berlin is poor, but sexy"--Mayor of Berlin, 2003

Welcome to the hot mess edition of Samantha's blogg. (luckily I can check this before I post because I initially wrote addition instead of edition). I haven't slept in 24 hours, and I wont be sleeping until after class tonight...aka 7:30pm (It's 8am now). Hopefully the important details of this post aren't forgetten. I should just start at the beginning.

Imagine 13 American's taking the midnight bus to Germany, with no idea how to get anywhere when we arrive. This is the beginning. We get on the bus only to discover that all the perks we paid for; the free hot drinks, movie, bathroom, are all apparently broken. Thank you orange ways bus. Not to mention the entire 5 hour trip the air conditioning must have been on. Note- chinatown bus beats the hungarian bus.

So the arrival... 5:30 am. For those of you who know me, know this is the worst time for me to be existing, especially without coffee. Very long and lost story short we make it to the hostel around 7:30am. We walk in, the hot messes that we were, and find this amazing hostel with a bar, tons of couches, bathroom for free and a breakfast spread. Apparently even though we signed up to check in at 7am you cant until like noon. That's fine. Germany is just a big fat liar all around. So we buy the breakfast for 5 euro- which is pretty much an entire week of groceries in Praha, and have an amazing (sarcastic) breakfast of bread and jelly and weird meat and cereal. They did have brewed coffee so I forgave the entire country for everything else.

It was here were we decided to split up and some of us went exploring and others wanted to sleep a little. First stop- the German parliment building, which was so beautiful. There is a center dome that you can walk up in a circle and see the entire city of berlin. They gave us headsets too and learned a lot of history of the city. We were also able to see parliment in session, (The building is built so you can see them, representing Germany's new transparent government after all the communism) which was really interesting. After that we just walked around the city a bit, getting lost and suprisingly finding our way back. We saw the Brandenburg gate, part of the wall, and the sony center. Ahh and we had lunch at this small German resturant and had the most amazing currywurst mit pommes. Tasted soooo good!

After this it was time for a little rest back at the hostel. We got coffee and after some sleeping watched German MTV for far too long. The other group was across the entire city at this point so we decided to just find dnner ourselves.
Interruption: it snowed non-stop in Berlin this entire trip. There was not one milisecond in which I was not cold. The last day here I had on 2 pants, 3 pairs of socks and like 5 shirts and was still cold.
So we decided on this thai/malaysian/whatever resturant... in Germany. Everything was sooo amazing. Like beyond amazing. Food, drinks, everything was great.
However, you do notice that the German people stare at you once they can see that you are american. I mean, it is obvious, since we are all speaking english or awful German, but it does make you aware that they are judging you!

Full day 2: we got up early to go on a 3 hour FREE tour of Berlin. While waiting found a DUNKIN DONUTS!!!!!!!! real coffee brewed in a pot (which you can not find in praha). It litterly made me the happiest camper of all time. I was ready for that 3 hour tour. ( in the end I was still beyond freezing and the fact that my toes didn't fall off due to frostbite from that tour is amazing and I think I should write a book about it: "how to survive the tundra") The tour began with a lot of things we saw the day before, but our tour guiide, Adam, who I was in love with because he was adorable and had his nosed pierced, knew so much and was really into his job. We learned the entire history of Berlin, which was super interesting because as it turns out I know basically nothing about that city. I had no idea it was that important. We also saw a longer part of the wall, checkpoint charlie, or the place where people could pass from East Berlin to West Berlin if they had documentation, the place where HItler's bunker is, the only Nazi building still standing, which is still being used, the place of the largerst book burning, and so many other really interesting places. Haha we also saw the hotel that MJ hung his kid Blanket out of in that famous picture. Go Berlin!

There were many things that intriged me about Berlin. First off it was so cool to see some of the buildings that made it through the war and they had bullet holes in them. only 10% of the buildings in Berlin are still standing from before the war. The rest had to be rebuilt afterward. At first I was not all the imporessed with Berlin, but after finding all that out, I loved it. I also find it really interesting that I lived when it was East Germany and West Germany. It's not really a big deal now, but it will be when I'm the oldest person on the planet and no one else can say they were alive for that. It was really surreal to walk through and see all these places where Nazi's occupied, because you know it happened but to see it is something completely different.

That night we went on a pub crawl that is offered in Berlin. It was really fun to meet different people traveling from around the world. We even met a few Americans. It was definitely an experience and everyone should try it. Thats all Im going to write about this part.

The next morning we went on a tour of Sachsenhausen, a Concentratin Camp just north of Berlin. This was a really powerful trip, and Im so glad I was able to go and see this. The camp was opened in 1936 and was actually the blueprint for all the other camps. While a lot of the buildings had fallen down, a lot of the original foundation still stood, as well as a prision, the pathology center and morgue (which still had actual blood stains on the floor) and the crematorium, were still standing. It was a really overwhelming momment that I wish everyone could go through. Just imaginging everything that went on there and the hate that still exists amazes me.

Later we met up with everyone and had drinks at this place that serves 165 different kinds of beer, and th service was great, especially for 12 annoying Americans.

It was at this point where things began to look like they did at the beginning of the trip. We made it to the bus station, made it on the bus to once again find that everything was broken, and we were on our way. Halfway through the trip I noticed people began moving towards the back of the bus where I was sitting. I asked someone who replied that it was so hot his shoe was melting. I was absolutely freezing, as there was air conditioning at the back and normal heat temperatures at the front. Plus the stupid bus kept stopping. It was around 4am that I began to completely lose it and I knew that If we didn't make it home soon, people were going to get hurt (and I was thinking about how I can't have anymore dunkin donuts coffee... thanks Praha).

Overall it was a really succsessful trip and really really fun.

except right now Im about to fall asleep and I have a Czech quiz in a few hours.... lets hope I can stay alive through all of this.
Welcome back to Prague!!!!!